Considered by the government to be a luxury item; the importation of bananas were banned for the duration of World War II and didn’t return to the northeast of England until 1945. However they were still pretty scarce then and the queues were miles long.
So it wasn’t until 1950 when I was eight years old that I tasted my first banana and it was fantastic. (it is hard to imagine never having tasted a fruit that is so common place nowadays but in those days an orange was the only foreign fruit that war time children had ever tasted).
In those days we were happy to just peel and eat that wonderful fruit as it was. But then as the banana became commonplace we began to enjoy it in different ways, banana split with ice cream, Bananas baked and served with custard banana fritters and later on toffee bananas and more.
F Watson.
Banana Fritters
2 oz of plain flour
Pinch of salt
3 teaspoons of icing sugar
2 tablespoons of warm water
2 teaspoons of butter (melted)
The white of one egg
4 medium bananas
Oil for frying
Method
Mix flour and salt in a bowl, add icing sugar
Mix with water and butter to thick and smooth batter
Whisk egg white until stiff then fold into the batter
Half the bananas lengthways
Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer until smoking hot
Dip each half banana in batter and fry until golden
